[2] She is a 1994 graduate of Harvey Mudd College,[1] where she completed a double major in mathematics and physics as well as earning credits towards a teaching credential.
[6] Switkes volunteers as an associate pastor at the Orange Coast Free Methodist Church in Costa Mesa, California,[7] and as a mathematics teacher with the Prison Education Project.
[2] As inspiration for her volunteer work she cites a book by Bob Moses, Radical Equations—Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project, on the importance of mathematical literacy in escaping underprivileged circumstances.
[8] In 2019, Switkes won one of the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, the highest teaching award of the Mathematical Association of America, "for bringing her educational core values of excellence, honor, integrity, love, and purpose to all students, and specifically to traditionally underserved students".
The award recognized both her prison volunteer work and her mentorship of undergraduate and master's students at Cal Poly Pomona.